In A Less Than Perfect World
by Insane Elven Pirate
Summary: Can a world thrown into chaos be saved? Can love truly conquer all? Five friends, one journey. When all hope seems lost, it is them who hold the future in their hands. An alternate, slightly darker take on the original story.


**Title: **In a Less Than Perfect World

**Author: **Insane Elven Pirate

**Rating:** T

**Pairings: **Zutara, Kataang, Toko, Taang, Tokka, Sukka, Yuokka... I plan to explore a bit of everything, focusing on friendships, hidden desires, misplaced feelings... I'm kinda focusing on the idea that time changes hearts and when five people travel together, it's inevitable that deeper feelings will get involved. ...That will make more sense when you read the story.

**Summary: **AU A young monk seeking to right his wrongs. A waterbender cast aside by her people. A warrior hoping to prove his worth. A blind girl who refuses to let anyone stand in her way. And a banished prince trying to regain his honor. Can a world thrown into chaos be saved? Can love truly conquer all? An alternate, slightly darker take on the original story.

- - -

**Prologue**

_A young monk seeking to right his wrongs..._

The world was so cold. He was tired. Was he asleep? Awake? He couldn't tell. In the back of his mind he felt that something wasn't quite right, that there was something he needed to do, but for the life of him he couldn't say what. It was an itch he just couldn't scratch. Not to mention the voices. There were thousands of them, all talking at the same time, desperate to be heard.

_...is ridiculous. The boy is fifteen years old, you would think he would..._

_ ...too early, he wasn't ready for..._

_ ...much difference can one year possibly..._

_ ...air nomads fault, they should have raised him to be more..._

_ ..._Excuse _me? Just where do you go off bringing element into this? It's you Water folk who are the weakest. You're all too sensitive! Push, pull, ebb, flow, what does that even mean?_

_ ...is absurd! At least we don't sit around all day like rocks! Lazy bunch of..._

_ ...climate is tolerable, unlike that hot sauna that is the Fire Nation! How can you even..._

_Please,_ the boy thought silently. _Please, I can't understand you. What are you trying to say?_

Beneath all the chatter, he started to hear a voice, growing stronger as it rose to the surface of his thoughts, trying desperately to be heard.

_Aang... Aang... Aang... Can you hear me?_ The voice was deep, and sounded like it belong to a much older man.

_ I hear you, _he replied._ Who are you?_

_ I am Avatar Roku. I am one of your past lives. The voices you are hearing now are the voices of all the past Avatars that have walked on this earth. _

_ I don't understand._

_ Unfortunately, we do not have the time to fully explain. The world is at war. You are encased in ice, miles below the surface of the ocean. You cannot stay here. You need to wake up._

Aang struggled. _I can't._

_You must. Everyone is depending on you, Aang._

Putting all his determination into waking up, Aang felt a surge of power from deep within his body. Slowly, he could feel pieces of his consciousness returning. As he grew more and more aware, he began to realize that it felt like he was rising. Roku had said that he was below the surface of the ocean, so that must mean that he was currently floating to the to the top.

Sure enough, his tiny, frozen world shook violently as it broke the surface of the water. It bobbed up and down for a minute or two, before the young airbender summoned more power in an attempt to break free from his icy prison.

The iceberg shuddered, and a deafening cracking sound filled the air. The power that was slowly building up within the iceberg exploded outward with a blinding fury, casting a column of light straight up into the sky. Ice flew in every direction, and for the first time in one hundred years, Aang saw the sky.

- - -

_A waterbender cast aside by her people, a warrior hoping to prove his worth..._

In a small camp located in the middle of the Earth Nation, two teens set about to do the days work. The first teen, a boy who looked to be about eighteen dressed in tattered, blue clothes was sitting one a rock, sharpening his sword. His dark brown hair was pulled back into a short ponytail and a small tuft of hair grew on his chin, signaling that he was almost a man. His dark skin was covered and dirt and his muscular frame looked as if it had been a while since he had eaten a decent meal.

The other teen, a young girl around seventeen, who bore a striking resemblance to the boy, was dressed in similar fashion. Her hair was braided, but ragged with strands flying this way and that. She had one strand of hair on each side of her face. The one on the left was pulled back and clipped to the braid, while the one on the right, having come undone, hung freely next to her face.

"Sokka, can you give me your dirty clothes? I'm doing the laundry." The girl swung a bag over her shoulder and made her way to the small stream that bordered their camp.

The boy stopped sharpening his sword and went over to the larger of the two of their tents and tossed her a small brown sack. The girl reached out to catch it, but it flew just out of her reach, landing in the stream with a loud splash.

"Nice one," she said drily, fishing the bag out of the water.

Sokka grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, Katara." He bent down to retrieve his sword from where he had placed it on the ground. "Our food reserves are running low, again, I'm going hunting. Will you be alright here by yourself?"

Katara had her back to him as she began washing the clothes. "Of course, I'll be fine. Just try not to get lost this time, okay?"

Sokka blushed bright red. "That only happened once. Anyways, just be careful while I'm gone, okay? If someone comes wandering by,don't let them catch you waterbending. And if some Fire Nation soldiers come by, run. We'll meet at the rendezvous point we agreed on. Do you remember where that is?"

"_Yes,_ Sokka," Katara responded a bit impatiently. "You give me the same speech every time you leave the camp. And every time, nothing has happened. I'll be _fine_."

"Alright, alright, I get it, I'll stop. I just don't want to lose my little sister to the camps, ya know?"

Katara knew. For the past fifty years, in an effort to keep down any force that might try to fight against them, the Fire Nation had rounded up every bender they could find from both the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes and placed them in work camps set up in various places around the world. Any village who didn't willingly give up their benders was burned to the ground. When Sokka and Katara got word that their own village was having Katara sent away to the camps, they fled.

Katara turned around and gave her brother a sad smile. "Yeah, I know Sokka. Listen, you be careful too, alright?"

Sokka walked over to Katara and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "I always am."

Katara wrinkled her nose in disgust. "What is that stench?"

Sokka chuckled as he straightened. "That, my dear sister, is the smell of a hard working man."

Katara rolled her eyes. "You stink. You're bathing when you get back!"

Sokka, who had already set off in the direction of the woods, waved a hand in dismissal, "Yeah, yeah."

"And use soap this time!" Katara shouted as Sokka disappeared in the woods.

Heaving a sigh, Katara returned her attention to the washing. After about an hour, she was just hanging the last of the clothes up to dry when a bright column of light shining in the Northeast caught her attention.

"Woah."

Sokka, who just returning to camp with three small rabbitmice slung over his shoulder, dropped what he was carrying when he saw the column of light, which was already beginning to fade. "What the... What is that?" he asked as he moved to stand behind his sister.

Katara turned to him, her blue eyes wide with awe. "I... don't know."

- - -

_A blind girl who refuses to let anyone stand in her way, a banished prince trying to regain his honor..._

A young girl around sixteen years of age dressed in loose fitting green clothing made her way though the busy streets of a small Earth Kingdom Village. Her thick black hair was tied in two buns on either side of her head while her overly long bangs hung down in front of her face. On either side of her, merchants shouted their prices, trying to lure in customers.

"Oof!" suddenly, the girl ran into a large fat man in the middle of the street.

"Hey!" The man yelled. "Why don't you watch where you're... Oh. Um... I'm sorry, I didn't realize"

The girl was looking up at him, her green, sightless eyes wide and innocent. "I am so sorry, sir!" she cried. "Please forgive my carelessness. I promise to be more careful in the future."

"No, no" The man shook his head. "There's no need to apologize. It was an accident, after all."

The girl smiled up at him sweetly. "Thank you sir, for your understanding."

The man chuckled. "You take care of yourself now, you hear?"

"Yes, sir!"

The two went on their separate ways. Once she was a good enough distance away, the girl pulled out the coin purse which she had swiped from the man's belt when she ran into him. She tossed it in the air, feeling it's weight, and chuckled to herself. "Sucker."

The girl made her way out of the town and walked a couple miles until she reached a pile of rocks. Swiping her bare foot across the ground, she made sure there were no one nearby before stomped on the ground, causing the a hole to open in the middle of the rock pile, revealing the entrance to a cave. Once inside the cave, another stomp sealed the entrance behind her.

"Toph? Is that you?" a voice called out from the dark.

"Of course it's me, Fire Breath! Who else?"

The one she had called, 'Fire Breath' came out of the dark, a small ball of fire in his hand lighting the way. He was a tall boy of around eighteen with dark, shaggy hair. His eyes were a vivid gold and his face would have been perfect, if not for the red burn scar covering his left eye, a violent, angry reminder of a likely troubling past. The boy gave a huff of annoyance. "Well, _excuse_ me, little miss sarcasm. You can never be too careful nowadays. They've got scouts everywhere looking for rogue benders."

"Yeah, but how many of those scouts are earthbenders?" When she got no response, Toph frowned. "What?"

"Well..."

"Come on, Zuko, spit it out!"

Zuko sighed. "I've heard rumors that my fatherhas managed to turn some of the the captured water and earth benders to his side. They're fighting in the Fire Nation army."

Toph was silent for a moment, before she blew a strand of hair out of her face in annoyance. "Figures. No good bunch of cowards."

Zuko scoffed. "Tell me about it."

Toph plopped down to the dirt floor of the cave a crossed her legs. "So you ready to hear the plan?"

Sitting down beside her, Zuko arranged some logs to make a small fire. "Bring it on."

"Alright," Toph roughly hit the ground with her fist, and the dirt arranged itself to look like an aerial view of the town. "This," she said, pointing to a house that was clearly larger than all the others in the center of the town, "is our target." She hit her fist on the floor of the cave again, and the model of the town was replaced with a larger scale version of the house. "Today I felt two gaurds on the entrance and two more on the rear. They may up their security at night, but that likely won't be a problem. You'll be entering here, in the cellar." She pointed to a small set of stairs that led into the ground where a small door was position on the side of the house. "The lock is rusted over and should be easy for you to break. You'll go in, take the stairs to the first floor, there's no lock on the door between the cellar and first floor, so it won't be an issue, take whatever valuables you can find and get out through this window." As she spoke, Toph outlined the rought that Zuko should take through the house, cutting away pieces of her rock models walls when needed. "Sound good?"

Zuko nodded. "Seems simple enough."

"Great. I'll be across the street, ready to lend assistance if you need any. If all goes according to plan, then we'll meet back here when we're through and be out of this town by morning." She scowled. "Don't want the soldiers to pick up our trail."

"Oh! That reminds me." Zuko reached into his shirt and pulled out a piece of paper and began to unfold it. "Look what I found."

"That sounds like paper." Toph reached out and felt the object in Zuko's hand. "Wow!" she exclaimed, false excitement lacing her voice. "It _is_ paper! Zuko, this is great! Forget tonight's plan, we'll just sell this! We'll be rich!"

Zuko grimaced. "Alright, already, I was going to explain, just give me a moment. He finished unfolding the paper. "It's a wanted poster. _Our_ wanted poster."

Toph's face lit up in excitement. "Really? That's so cool? What's it say? What are they calling us? Are their pictures? Is there a reward? How much?"

"It says they're offering up 50,000 gold pieces for whoever can turn 'The Blind Bandit' and 'The Blue Spirit' over the the fire nation, dead or alive. Then there's some pictures. Mine's just of my mask, yours you with your blindfold on. Actually..." he squinted at the paper, "They kinda drew you looking like a man."

"Sweet." Toph's grin widened. "The Blind Bandit, huh? I like it."

Zuko gave a small smile and began to refold the poster. "I thought you might."

"Hey, you wanna head into town and grab some dinner?" Toph held up the prize she had captured earlier. "My treat."

Zuko hoisted himself off of the floor. "Sounds good."

Jumping up, Toph bent the entrance to the cave open and the two thieves stepped out. As soon as he exited the cave, Zuko stopped dead in his tracks. There, in the sky to the Northwest was a brilliant shining column of white light.

"Hey, Flame Sucker!" Toph had stopped when she realized the firebender wasn't following her. "Are you coming?"

"It's... amazing..." Zuko said, still staring in awe as the light began to fade.

Toph frowned. "_What _is?"

"The light." by now, it had completely faded. "There was a bright tower of light!"

"O... Kay... And?"

Zuko's eyes suddenly widened. "We have to follow it! We have to follow the light!"

Toph snorted. "What? You want to go chasing after some light? What for?"

Zuko was getting more excited by the second. "It's the Avatar! I know it!"

"Oh, boy." Toph brought a hand up to her forehead. "Not this again. Listen, Grumpy Pants, every time you see something strange, you assume it's--" Toph wiggled her fingers and warbled her voice-- "a sign of the avatar." She lowered her hands and returned her voice to normal. "It never is."

"But this time is different! I... I just know it!"

Toph sighed and crossed her arms. "Okay, fine. Let's say it is the Avatar. What then?"

"What do you mean?"

Toph threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "Are you going to _capture_ him? Invite him over for tea? Shake his hand? What?! What, Zuko? What do you intend to do if the Avatar has returned?"

"I don't know!" Zuko yelled. He gave a heavy sigh, and sank to the ground in defeat, head in his handers. "I don't know," he repeated, much weaker this time.

Toph sighed. "Well, for your sake, I hope you figure it out before you do something stupid. As soon as we pull off what we intend to do tonight, we'll follow your silly little light."

Zuko stared up at her, shocked. "We will?"

"Yeah, sure, why not." Toph shrugged. "Now get your ass off the ground and get moving! I'm starving!"

- - -

**Well, that's the prologue. The first full chapter will be posted as soon as I finish it, in the meantime, leave me a review and let me know what you think! :D**


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